After BJP setback in Lok Sabha polls, VHP to step up Dalit outreach via Dharma Sammelans

“The programme will start 15 days ahead of Diwali (scheduled for November 1). We have requested religious leaders and saints to hold padyatras in Dalit villages and settlements in cities and towns. During these, the saints will have food with the community and also deliver religious sermons. This is being done for religious awakening in the society. We keep doing this from time to time. The idea is that instead of Satsang (religious meeting) waiting for people to come to it, Satsang will go to the people,” VHP president Alok Kumar told The Indian Express.

Before this, the organisation will also be engaged in holding the celebrations to mark its 60th birth anniversary on Krishna Janmashtami. Beginning August 24, the VHP would hold religious conferences in this regard in nearly 9,000 blocks across the country. “These would have participation from diverse sections of society, including women and Dalits,” Kumar said.

Although these events are in line with the long-term project of the Sangh Parivar to eliminate untouchability in society and unite Hindus, it assumes political significance in the wake of the reported move by a significant section of Dalits to switch sides in the Lok Sabha polls.

This switch, witnessed in some of the Hindi heartland states besides Maharashtra and Karnataka, caused damage to the BJP’s electoral prospects leading to the party falling short of a simple majority (272 seats) by as many as 32 seats. The BJP suffered its worst setback in UP, where despite having inaugurated the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in January, the party not only lost the Ayodhya (Faizabad) seat to the Samajwadi Party (SP), but also fell from its tally of 62 seats in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to just 33 seats this time.

The Dalit shift in the polls was triggered by statements from certain BJP candidates who hinted in their campaign speeches that if the party-led NDA went past 400 seats, the Constitution would be changed to facilitate a Hindu Rashtra. This was quickly weaponised by the INDIA alliance, which ran a campaign on the plank of saving the Constitution drafted by the Dalit icon B R Ambedkar.